On Tue, 25 Feb 1997, Franny Drobny wrote:

>
> Does anyone have any experience with nesting boxes for kingfishers? Someone
> I work with has a large bird house for flickers and woodpeckers. Since the
> box is near the water (Lopez Island) and there are kingfishers around, is
> there any chance the kingfishers might use the birdhouse? Does anyone know
> where they nest or in what type of habitat?
>


Kingfishers excavate a burrow 2 to 3 feet long into a cutbank. They
usually use cutbanks along streams or rivers, but will fly quite a
distance from a good feeding area to nest in, for example, a gravel pit
with steep walls, if no natural cutbanks are available. I am not aware
of Kingfishers, or any other birds that excavates dirt burrows (like Bank
Swallows) accepting a nest box as a substitute. I'm no kingfisher expert,
though. As a card carrying academic, I have to spend a lot of time on
pecking order stuff, you know, so I don't get to read as much as I'd like
;)

Chris Hill
Everett, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu